MUMBAI, India — India’s stock markets remained closed Thursday following the Maharashtra government’s declaration of a public holiday to facilitate municipal corporation elections across the state.
Both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange suspended trading for the day. The BSE said there was no trading in the equity segment, equity derivatives, commodity derivatives, or electronic gold receipts. It also noted that equity derivative contracts originally scheduled to expire on January 15, 2026, were settled a day earlier, with the changes reflected in end-of-day contract master files.
The NSE confirmed that January 15 was observed as a trading holiday across both the capital market and futures and options segments.
The holiday was announced to ensure the smooth conduct of elections in 29 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in Mumbai. Trading on both exchanges is scheduled to resume Friday.
The closure followed a volatile session on Wednesday, when domestic benchmarks ended lower amid weakness in information technology and real estate stocks. Investor sentiment was also weighed down by rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty surrounding a potential U.S.-India trade agreement.
The Sensex fell 0.29 percent, or 244.98 points, to close at 83,382.71, while the Nifty declined 0.26 percent, or 66.70 points, to end at 25,665.60.
Broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The Nifty SmallCap 100 index gained 0.67 percent, while the Nifty MidCap 100 rose 0.29 percent. Sectorally, IT and realty stocks faced selling pressure, with the Nifty IT index dropping 1.08 percent and the Nifty Realty index falling 0.92 percent.
Analysts said market sentiment continued to be shaped by sustained foreign institutional selling and elevated geopolitical and trade-related uncertainties, resulting in subdued risk appetite and largely stock-specific trading despite brief periods of early optimism. (Source: IANS)
